In May, NFTs from the Milady collection boomed on OpenSea thanks to Elon Musk. 

In fact, Musk posted a tweet depicting one of the images from the Milady Maker collection. 

Although it was just a meme built on one of those images, and had nothing to do with that collection, the collection generated a total trading volume of more than 45,000 ETH (more than $26 million), whereas until the previous month it had never exceeded 1,500 ETH. 

In reality, the NFT collection was already booming in the weeks leading up to Elon Musk’s meme, even though it had already been on the crypto markets for almost two years, and Musk merely caused it to jump even higher. 

Since then, however, this mini-bubble has deflated. 

The mini-bubble on the Milady NFT collection caused by Elon Musk

To analyze how it inflated, and how this mini-bubble has since burst, we need to engage in two different reasonings, namely one on prices and one on volumes. 

At the end of April, the average trading price of the nearly 10,000 NFTs in this collection was about 2.7 ETH, already up from 1.9 ETH at the beginning of the month. 

By the beginning of May the average price had already risen to 3.5 ETH, but with the perhaps unintentional push by Elon Musk it reached close to 5 ETH. 

This is an increase of 163% in one month. 

By the end of May, the average price had already returned to 3.5 ETH, and in June it dropped to 2.8. It is worth noting that this price is in line with the price at the end of April, i.e. 40% higher than at the beginning of April. 

It later recovered above 3 ETH, but only to fall back again near 2.7. 

So from a price perspective the mini-bubble was rapid and significant, but its burst did not wipe out all the gains. In light of this, it is possible to say that April’s gains were probably not due to the mini-bubble, while only those of the first half of May were. 

Elon Musk manipulates trading volumes on the Milady NFTs

The most striking numbers are those relating to volumes. 

In April, there had been no significant increase in weekly volumes, always ranging between 2,000 and 3,000 ETH. 

The real boom occurred in May. During the first week they had already risen to almost 4,500, while after Musk’s tweet they sprang to over 13,000 ETH. 

The increase was 420%, making it clear that this was a mini-bubble. 

Moreover, when this bubble burst, weekly volumes literally collapsed, first falling below 2,000 ETH and then even below 1,000. 

In other words, current volumes are less than half of what they were pre-bubble. 

The comparison with the price trend is interesting, because while the volumes inflated a lot and then deflated to the point of collapsing, the average price inflated less, and then did not even fall to pre-bubble levels. 

Moreover, the fact that 70% of the owners of the NFTs in this collection turn out to own only one suggests that there has been a real phase of large distribution, perhaps not only thanks to Elon Musk. 

Comparison with Bored Ape Yacht Club

If one compares this data with that of the currently most successful collection on OpenSea, namely Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), it turns out that it is not that uncommon for trading volumes on OpenSea to change so much and so quickly, even apart from prices. 

Indeed, the average selling price of BAYC’s 10,000 NFTs on OpenSea has dropped from 55 ETH in early April to the current 34 ETH, or a loss in two months of about 38%. 

Volumes, on the other hand, first fell, then surged, and then fell again. 

At the beginning of April the weekly volume was about 21,000 ETH, which is much higher than that of Milady Maker. 

In May it had dropped to below 6,000 ETH, but in June it surged again to over 40,000 ETH. 

In late June and early July, however, they returned first below 20,000 ETH and then also below 10,000. 

Even with regard to this collection, the overwhelming majority of holders (81%) have only one NFT, so the comparison with Milady Maker holds. 

Therefore, this story teaches us that on OpenSea the trading volumes of specific collections can change a lot and also very quickly, while instead the prices are paradoxically somewhat less variable.

They still vary a great deal, but definitely less than the oh-so-high variability of trading volumes.

The Milady Maker NFT collection has been on OpenSea since August 2021. 

It consists of nearly 10,000 NFTs on Ethereum, which have so far generated a total trading volume of more than 45,000 ETH (more than USD 26 million). 

However, until April 2023 it had never exceeded 1,500 ETH in weekly trading volume, but in April it experienced a sales boom. 

Suffice it to say that the average weekly selling price of its NFTs had never exceeded 2 ETH until April, but by the beginning of May it had already risen to over 3.5 ETH, with a total weekly trading volume of more than 4,400 ETH. 

So it is a collection of NFTs that have been on the rise in recent weeks, despite being almost two years old. 

Elon Musk’s intervention causes Milady NFTs to explode on OpenSea

On Wednesday, Elon Musk posted a tweet showing one of the images from the Milady Maker collection. 

It is unclear whether or not Musk knew that this image was part of the said NFT collection, so he commented on it by saying “there is no meme, I love you”. 

There is no meme’ is actually a meme, it just uses a different image each time.

The image used by Musk to create this meme is definitely from the Milady Maker collection, but has been modified by adding a red-out frame. 

Nevertheless, the NFT Miladys were taken by storm yesterday. 

Milady Maker: the boom of the NFT collection on OpenSea

The base price jumped to 4.15 ETH and the weekly volume jumped to over 11,000 ETH, even though it has only been a little over four days since the start of the week. 

In other words, four days of trading volume was almost three times that of the entire previous week, and almost a quarter of the entire historical trading volume of Miladys NFTs on OpenSea was concentrated in the last few days. 

It is not clear whether Elon Musk was aware of what he was doing, or whether he was doing it deliberately to make a profit, perhaps having previously bought some of these NFTs. 

What is clear, however, is that the Twitter patron is still able to exert a strong influence on the crypto markets. 

Elon Musk’s influence on the crypto markets

On the other hand, while he has not been able to get the price of his beloved Dogecoin to recover for some time now, he has also been able to move the price of Floki, or previously Shiba Inu, quite a bit. 

Apart from Dogecoin, of which Musk is known to be a supporter and has even bought some, it has never been made clear whether he also had FLOKI or SHIB in his portfolio before his tweets pumped up their prices. 

However, it must be stressed that in the medium to long term, Musk does not seem to be able to maintain the value of a memecoin. 

His interventions are only able to move prices in the crypto markets quickly and significantly for short or very short periods of time. 

For example, right now the price of Dogecoin is -90% from its highs, as well as Floki and Shiba Inu. 

So these are short or very short term dynamics that often disappear once the hype dies down. 

Perhaps this will also be the case for the NFT miladys, although their little April boom started well before Musk’s tweet.

The NFT Market

Overall, April 2023 was not a particularly good month for NFT trading on OpenSea. 

Total monthly volume was around $285 million, compared to $383 million in March. 

However, last month’s volume was still higher than that of November 2022, when it barely exceeded $255 million. 

The current figures are far from the historical monthly peak of $4.8 billion in January 2022, but are still significantly higher than in the first half of 2021. 

In other words, the NFT market has deflated somewhat from the resounding bubble of the second half of 2021, but is by no means back to pre-bubble levels. On the contrary, monthly volumes are still much higher compared to early 2021. 

This is all the more relevant if we add the fact that OpenSea has lost its historical leadership in the sector to Blur in recent months. 

So the situation is actually less serious than a superficial analysis might suggest, although the period the NFT market is currently going through is certainly not particularly prosperous. 

Top collections

The top collection of the last seven days on OpenSea is indeed Milady Maker. Such has been the boom that in just four days it has risen to fourth place overall among the top collections of the last 30 days. 

It was previously dominated by Mutant Ape Yacht Club, which is still in second place for the week, while in second place for the last 24 hours is Bored Ape Yacht Club. 

Looking at the last 24 hours alone, Milady Maker dominated with 1,900 ETH of total trading volume, followed by Bored Ape Yacht Club with 1,300 and Mutant Ape Yacht Club with 1,200. 

In fourth place is Pudgy Penguins with less than 1,000 ETH of daily trading volume. 

In third place is Azuki with 12,000 ETH, almost on a par with Mutant Ape Yacht Club. This ranking is also dominated by Milady Maker with 13,000 ETH and a +231% increase from last week. 

Trading volume

These numbers are not huge, but they are not insignificant either. 

So at the moment the NFT market, especially on OpenSea, is by no means dead, and in fact is still alive and kicking. 

However, it is still a long way from the highs of a genuine speculative bubble that was bound to burst, as all bubbles do sooner or later.

At the moment there is no sign of a speculative bubble in the sector, although micro-bubbles can form at certain times, such as the one that probably exists on the NFTs in the Milady Maker collection. 

On the contrary, the fact that Bored Ape Yacht Club, Mutant Ape Yacht Club and Azuki are still riding the crest of a wave, despite the bursting of the 2021 bubble, probably means that at least these collections do not seem destined for oblivion for the time being. 

However, if a new big bubble starts to inflate, it is possible that other collections may be able to garner the most support, especially if they are new collections created just to ride the wave.